Responding to Rudeness on Social Media

When you are regularly on social media networks, you interact with many people online. While the majority of people are supportive, others may leave rude comments on the networks. These negative people are likely a minority, however being prepared for how to respond to rude comments is a good idea. You will be more confident on the social media networks and take the comment less personally when you are prepared for the possibility.

The rude comments may be in relation to a link you posted to a photo, an article or other media type. The comments may also be a personal attack to your profile photo or description. There are several ways to effectively respond to rude remarks.

Delete the Comments

One option when you receive a rude comment on a social media network is to delete the comment if you have the authority on the particular network. On Facebook, for example, you can delete comments posted on your own wall.

You may want to delete the comment rather than engaging in conversation with the writer if you consider the remark blatantly offensive and likely to offend others too. Examples include remarks that contain swear words or are racist in nature.

When you delete the comment rather than respond to it directly, you do not risk engaging in the same low level as the other person. As well, it is possible that the commenter is trying to entice you into saying something foolish and will then call you out on your remark. These people are often called Internet trolls as they post remarks to provoke people into emotional replies. Engaging in negative remarks with this person only breeds further negativity.

Block the Commenter

In addition to deleting rude comments, or instead of this action (if you do not have the authority to delete), you can also respond by blocking the commenter from your profile on the social media network. When you block a person on Google+, for example, you cannot see each other’s profiles or any public messages written by each other. Communication with each other on that network ceases.

Remember that you do have the right to block someone. You have likely not met the commenter in real life and there are countless other people to communicate with on social media networks. You do not owe the blocked person an explanation for your response. Leave behind the negative comment and communicate with more positive people online.